How Do I Plan This Trip?

May 2020 note: I don't know when I started this post, but because I don't have other things to do, I'm going to go ahead and publish it. Who knows? Maybe at the end of all of this, Disney Parks will no longer exist. I did check all of the links, and everyone is still publishing information, so here's my opinion. Do with it as you will.

How Do I Plan This Trip 

or

Disney Planning Is Goofy!

See what I did there? 

Disney is not a fly by the seat of your pants and go where the mood takes you trip. Let me say that again for the people in the back. Disney trips require planning. I totally get that your idea of vacation is sleeping in, and flying by the seat of your pants. In that case, maybe Disney isn't the trip for you.

I know people who plan a trip quickly (within a few weeks) and have a lovely time. We'll come back to that. The people who tell me they were miserable or hated it or will never go back didn't plan. F'reals.  I've never heard a good trip report from someone who didn't plan ahead.

Ok.

Do you believe me now? You need to plan. Let's talk about ways to do that.

1. If you're overwhelmed or new or don't want to plan, get a Disney Vacation Planner. Not a general travel agent. A Disney agent, who does only (or mostly) Disney. You won't pay for their services, Disney gives them a cut of the cost of your trip. I just over simplified that, but you are not paying the planner anything.

I once talked to a girl in May who was super excited they had just decided to go and their agent was helping with their trip in July. Uh. No. Any self-respecting agent will make sure you really want to take that trip, because that is too quick and too lousy a time to visit. (Hot! Crowded! Did I mention hot?) Let the planner give you suggestions and advice. Trust their advice. They know what they're doing.

I have a favorite planner, but there are lots out there. My favorite is Bethany Houser. Bethany is not paying me to say this, I've just had great experiences working with her. I refer her to everyone I know, and I've heard wonderful feedback. Also our kids are classmates and were Cub Scouts together. Her contact info is here: Bethany's Facebook Page  Use whoever you know or is recommended by your friends IRL. I presume they're all as good as Bethany. I could be wrong, but I do 💓 Bethany.

A few months ago I happened to be at WDW the same time as one of my bosses. He used a planner who did everything for his trip. That was great for him. He didn't want to spend the time or energy planning. That's cool. Let the professional do it for you.

If you're buying any tickets or hotel or food or whatever, the cost of the planner is part of doing business with Disney. You might as well take advantage of that perk. I've been known to just email and say, "hey, here's what I'm thinking. What are your suggestions?" Obviously, if you don't book anything through them, they don't get paid, so don't be that guy who asks, but never books anything. (BTW, Bethany, sorry about that time I needed help searching for cruise options that we didn't take.)


2. You want to plan your own trip? Cool. You'll do just fine. If you're a newbie, see above about planners. Let them help at least a little.

-Best Site for Holy-Crap-What's-the-Difference-Between-Disneyland-and-Disney-World???: Mousesavers. Mousesavers does list all kinds of discounts and ways to save money, but I really love their Walt Disney World FAQ. It's a great description of  the difference between "Disneyworld" and Universal.

They're different companies. Don't be that guy who tries to go to Epcot for Harry Potter.

-Best Site for Detailed Comparisons of Options: Touring Plans
Touring Plans is one of my favorites, but can be overwhelming if you're just getting started. Touring Plans is related to the Unofficial Guide To [Park of Choice] books, which I love. The website and the books give what I feel are the best spoiler-free descriptions of attractions, including star ratings for each attraction by audience age group. I love a system that doesn't try to rate Dumbo and Tower of Terror the same way. I've even seen blog posts where they rate each resort room by the number of bathrooms. (Hotel room with more than one bathroom? Is this real? Apparently, it is.)

A few weeks before your trip, I recommend getting a paid Touring Plans subscription. It's $15ish/year and you can often find a coupon code. The paid subscription allows you to use their site to make personalized touring plans or they'll fax a room request for you. You could do those things on your own, but Touring Plans makes it super easy.

 I also recommend getting the Touring Plans app before your trip.* I use this app constantly during trips to get good estimated wait times.

*Here's the caveat. In June 2019 I had just switched from 10 years on an iPhone to a Google Pixel 3. The app never, not once worked during my trip. We used TP to fax in our room request, and got the farthest possible room from where we requested. TP insisted it was my phone, even after I did every problem solve they sent. I pitched a pretty big fit and they finally offered to refund my fee, but I feel like even though they were not helpful on this trip, they're generally very awesome and deserve my money.



-My favorite planning podcast? Disney Deciphered
I generally prefer to read my planning help, rather than listen, but Disney Deciphered is good. Their blog seems to cover what Joe and Leslie discuss in the podcast. The episodes come about about once a week, and are about 25 minutes long. The titles of each episode are nicely descriptive such as, "Epcot Under Construction: What You Need to Know About Visiting". That makes it easy to skip around in the podcast to listen to what's important to you right now. Joe and Leslie are friends who live on opposite coasts and they seem to have opinions similar to mine.

You should give them a listen just because Joe gave a name to how we visited WDW when I was a kid. "Forced March of Happiness" TM

Other resources I use regularly:

I follow the social media pages of The Dis, Disney Food Blog (which is great for general Disney info, not just food), and Couponing to Disney.

I regularly listen to the Best and Worst of Walt Disney World but it's not great for newbies. Neither is the defunct Backside of Magic, but it's a lot of fun listening to ways to bend but not break the system.

I'm sure there are thousands of planning sites, books, podcasts, witch doctors, etc. Some are better than others. Some fit your needs better than others. Find what you like that will actually use.